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(Ivanhoe Newswire) -- A once-a-month treatment could be all it takes to improve the quality of life for people with severe kidney disease.
Researchers from the Renal Research Institute in New York compared a long-acting erythropoiesis-stimulating agent variant of epoetin to a standard epoetin (Epogen, Procrit) treatment to control hemoglobin concentrations in people on hemodialysis. The long-acting treatment was given intravenously at two-week and four-week intervals, while the standard epoetin treatment was given one to three times per week. Initially, all patients received the standard treatment. Then, they were randomly assigned to receive the long-acting treatment every two weeks, every four weeks or to continue getting the conventional epoetin treatment.
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Results of the study show people who received the long-acting treatment every two weeks or every four weeks showed no significant change in hemoglobin concentrations when compared to those who received epoetin three times a week throughout the study.
Nathan Levin, M.D., from the Renal Research Institute, was quoted as saying, Errors with medication occur at an unacceptably high rate of 45 percent. Treatment with [long-acting] epoetin ... every four weeks would need only 13 doses per year compared with 52 to 156 doses with conventional epoetin, and would therefore allow fewer opportunities for error. Since our findings show that hemoglobin can be controlled in all dialysis patients with [long-acting] epoetin ... given every four weeks, we advise that this drug should be introduced as an option to epoetin for simplified anemia management.
This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, which offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, click on: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.
SOURCE: The Lancet, 2007;370:1415-1421
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